The worst of crimes

The full story of the murder that shocked Brazil.

Built with the pace of a thriller, The Worst of Crimes examines the tragic death of Isabella Nardoni, which shocked public opinion in a routinely violent country. On March 29, 2008, the 5-year-old girl was thrown alive from the window of her father, Alexandre Nardoni, and her stepmother, Anna Carolina Jatobá, an apartment on the sixth floor of a building in northern São Paulo. Isabella arrived at the hospital alive but died shortly after.

What followed was an investigation and a process full of poorly pursued leads, statements from suspects with "tricks", use of false information, undue pressure to obtain confessions, deficient forensic examinations, a Public Prosecutor's Office excited by the spotlight and doubts transformed into certainties.

One of the most important crime reporters of his generation, Rogério Pagnan wasn't content to simply detail the case. The author went further, addressing urgent and still little-debated questions in Brazil regarding the nature and limits of a judicial process, making this work, from now on, essential in the field of law. Here, the flaws that fuel a bureaucratic investigative system that falls short of the needs of a country with 60,000 homicides per year are exposed.

In "The Worst of Crimes ," Pagnan demonstrates what is always expected of great reporters in any circumstance: skeptical without being cynical, assertive without being frivolous, agile without being superficial. His extensive research into the details of the case, contrasting the arguments of the prosecution and defense, produced a piece of the highest quality and highest journalistic interest, worth reading for anyone interested in police investigations, the judicial system, crime, and punishment.

Whether or not the Nardoni case represented a miscarriage of justice, whether there were sufficient elements for a conviction "beyond a reasonable doubt", the reader will be able to say after reading this thought-provoking book-report.